Category: Morals

The First Vatican Council pronounced that the pope, in or out of council, would be protected by God with the gift of infallibility whenever he should define a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. Matters of Faith can only involve religious propositions and the matter of those propositions are true or false judgments. A moral definition would involve a proposition that is right or wrong, rather than true or false. The difference between the two involves the end being sought. A doctrinal pronouncement defines a religious truth, which is the object of the intellect. A moral pronouncement defines a good, which is the object of the will. One could say that Faith engages intellectual belief, morals engage voluntary action.

A moral act is a human act performed with knowledge and free will. Every consciously deliberate action is a moral act, and each one is either morally good or morally evil. If it leads us to our final end, eternal salvation, it is a morally good act. If it takes us away from salvation, it is a morally evil act, a sin. Morals, therefore, pertain to human conduct.

Articles in this section treat of a wide variety of issues that, immediately, proximately, or remotely, deal with the morality of human acts, whether individually or as a society.

Deus Vult!

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In 1095 Pope Urban II journeyed to his native France and to an assembly of Church dignitaries and Frankish knights gathered in a field outside the town of Clermont. There, he preached the First Crusade to liberate the Holy Land … Continue reading →

Up from the Bottom

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It was in 1962, fifty-six years ago, that an article by me was first published in a U.S. periodical of consequence. I was living in France, working as a rewrite man at what was then the Paris edition of the … Continue reading →